Step 1: Begin with relationship, not extraction

Open with a discussion:

• What makes someone feel safe enough to speak honestly?
• What responsibilities does an interviewer have toward the person they interview?
• Who benefits from a story, and who carries the emotional cost?

Share this quote: “Ask as if I were a curious child, literally. I didn’t want to be seen as an expert, but as someone who came to learn.” (Nícolas Durán, director, Rain Harvests) What would it look like to approach your own community this way?

Introduce the toolkit’s practices for before an interview. Explain who you are and why you are asking. Be clear about where the interview may appear and whether it is on or off the record. Give people space to decline questions. Never pressure someone into vulnerability for emotional impact.

Tip: People are never “subjects.” They are collaborators in meaning-making.

Step 2: Watch an interview-led film

Before viewing, introduce The Discernment Protocol. For this lesson, we suggest emphasizing the Perspective lens (whose experience defines the story?) and the Evidence lens (what do the interviews show, and what do they leave out?).

As they watch, students note the interviewer’s choices: which questions open up the conversation, where silence is allowed, and how the person is presented. After viewing, read the filmmaker Q&A together. How did the filmmaker build trust? What did they choose to include, and what did they leave out? In the Unseen Q&A, director Upneet Kaur-Nagpal describes how the first interviewee asked for her entire face to be concealed. What does it mean to let participants set the terms of their interview?

Step 3: Practice the interview

In pairs, students interview each other for 10 minutes about a meaningful memory, asking only open-ended questions. Then they switch.

Share the toolkit’s example. Instead of “Was that terrifying?”, try “What do you remember feeling in that moment?” Questions that open deeper conversation:

• “What changed for you after that?”
• “What do people misunderstand about this experience?”
• “When did you first realize this mattered?”
• “What gives you hope right now?”

Debrief: What helped the interview feel authentic? When did a pause lead to a fuller answer? Did any question push toward a particular answer? Vaida Blazyte, director of Dancing The Revolution, found that many contributors arrived with a prepared speech. When did your partner move past a rehearsed answer, and what helped?

Tip: Silence is part of the interview. Sometimes the most important moment comes after the first answer.

Step 4: Choose an issue and map it locally

Each student or team chooses one issue to research and watches a SIMA film about it (see Films by issue below). The film gives students shared knowledge of the issue before they ask others about it. After viewing, students map how the issue shows up where they live:

• Where do we see this issue in our school, neighborhood, or city?
• Who is most affected? Who works on it, such as local organizations, businesses, city offices, or volunteers?
• What do we already know, and what do we want to find out?

Students use the map to choose 3 to 5 people to interview, with different roles and experiences of the issue, and draft a question guide using Template B in the toolkit.

Tip: Start local and specific. “Plastic waste in our school cafeteria” is easier to research than “plastic pollution.”

Step 5: Research in your community

Each student or team interviews the people on their map about what they know and how they feel about the issue. Useful questions: What have you heard about this issue? How does it show up where we live? How do you feel about it, and why? Before each interview, share the consent form and explain the purpose. Begin with:

• “What would you like people to understand about your experience?”
• “Is there anything you don’t want to discuss today?”

Students choose one format for their series:

• Audio interview series. Record each conversation with a phone or recorder and produce a short podcast-style series, one episode per participant.
• Video interview series. Film each conversation with a phone or camera and produce a short series of interview portraits.

Part II of the toolkit covers the recording basics. For audio, choose a quiet room, turn off fans or TVs, sit close to the speaker, and record 30 seconds of room tone at the end. For video, frame the participant at eye level with their eyes in the upper third of the frame, face them toward soft window light rather than placing a bright window behind them, and keep the camera steady on a tripod or a stable surface.

Tip: Sound matters more than image. Audiences forgive imperfect visuals faster than poor sound.

Step 6: From interviews to evidence

Students analyze what they heard:

• What themes appear across the interviews? Where do people disagree? How does what our community knows and feels compare with what the film shows?
• Which statements can be checked against a second source, and which are personal experience?
• Keep a log for each interview with timecodes, marking direct quotes and key moments, so the edit stays true to what was said.
• Does my summary preserve context, intent, and complexity?

Each student or team produces an audio or video interview series of 2 to 3 short episodes (3 to 5 minutes each), with a brief introduction that frames the issue, and a short written reflection on what they learned and what action the findings point to.

Representation continues in the edit. Line Hadsbjerg, director of Fortune’s Gift, describes giving every person “the same clean platform on which to tell their stories.” Before sharing, students ask: Would the participant feel respected hearing or watching this? A truthful edit preserves context, intent, emotional accuracy, and complexity. Do not rearrange what someone said or cut out nuance for dramatic effect. Where possible, share the edit with participants before it is published.